Chapter 1174: Going In
Abel’s body ignored the defensive barrier. He slowly pa.s.sed through it. When he pa.s.sed through it, his movements were very slow, but he made extra preparations to see if he could escape immediately. He was not sure that merging with the environment would be enough to trick the guardians of the temple, but he felt like he should take the risk. The temple was very important to him for reasons he wasn’t sure of.
His legs did not land the whole time. His body was invisible. His angelic body pa.s.sed through the temple like a phantom, slowly and steadily. The very first challenge appeared in front of him. The temple door was completely shut. There was a large metal door in front of him. The upper half had an engraving depicting the wonders of heaven and the lower half depicted how terrible and vile the conventional world was. It was a very strong contrast.
Everything in heaven was wonderful—wealth, power, beauty none of that mattered. All that remained was pure faith in the divine spirit. Some strange words were written on the door. The font belonged to heaven. Since he received the angelic heritage already, he had started to notice them.
“Eternal life to those who believe me!”
Whether one could read the words or not, they felt sacred. Abel was not sure what to do here. This was a door that was several tens of meters tall. It would be impossible to open this without pa.s.sing the detection of the ones inside.
“There has to be more than one entrance!”
Abel thought back to the information he received from his preachers. Although the temple designs he got were nowhere as grand as the one he was looking at, the structure was somewhat similar. Slowly and steadily, he flew somewhere higher and saw a window that was built to show the sunlight inside. To ensure that the sunlight could better pa.s.s through the window and into the temple, no physical structures were installed to block the outermost barriers. Still, not only could this serve as a defensive layer, but it also protected against the elements so that the structure maintained optimal conditions.
Of course, that was not all there was to this window. There was a strange circle that could project a rainbow-colored barrier on the temple. The sunlight could be filterd into different colors, making the castle seem more sacred.
Abel easily pa.s.sed through the window. He moved so that not even the sunlight affected him. There was no sound, either. While inside the temple, he felt like his senses got stronger. He felt like he had full control over this place, but he didn’t want to extend his power of Will. Slowly and carefully, he went down from the topmost part of the temple. He was just realizing that he was inside the main hallroom.
Abel looked in the direction of the temple. Apart from that direction, everyone else was where the followers prayed. The altar was definitely the most crucial spot. It seemed that the representative, the Saint, was not inside at all. There was no one inside, so it seemed even quieter. Still, he could sense murderous intent from everywhere. As soon as he went down to fly to the altar, he very quickly faced three streaks of the scanning circle. If not for the angelic body he was using, the alarm siren they might have found him already.
Abel came to the altar and saw a statue that was placed on top. The wors.h.i.+p power that it contained made him feel like he was looking directly at the sun. He wanted to touch it, but he didn’t do it. The wors.h.i.+p power container was too scary for him to actually try. He didn’t want something to happen to his hand. Actually, he didn’t want something to happen inside the temple.
Still, Abel could realize that his eyes were attracted by a crystal body that was formed right underneath the statue. If the wors.h.i.+p power was just like a mist, this tiny crystal body would’ve been like a diamond. Although their quality was the same, their value was different.
Very carefully, Abel flew beneath the angelic statue and picked up the crystal body. His breath stopped as soon as he did. He didn’t want something to happen because of what he did. Still, he didn’t think that powerful figures would just switch on their power of the Will to spy on the whole temple. That would definitely cost too much energy. Also, the whole place was already defended with mechanisms powered up by divine power. If the divine spirits were here, there just wouldn’t be any way to go in silent.
Basically, Abel was getting too worried about the existence of any danger. If he wasn’t triggering the alarm or letting someone see him, he might just go unscathed. Actually, he was definitely getting excessively worried about the crystal body in his hands. A tremendous amount of divine power was already contained.
Abel thought back to all the guesses regarding every time he attacked the Nation of G.o.d. The Nation of G.o.d already activated the “divine crystal” to allow this to happen. Yes, “divine crystal.” That was the first thought that came to him. As the divine crystal was not fully formed yet. It made him capable of feeling the divine crystal more.
The interior of the divine crystal was completely made of divine power, which was structured in a very unique manner that the stone looked like a very pure jewel. Abel thought that this was the key to defending the central continent from the Nation of G.o.d. The Nation of G.o.d must’ve activated the “divine crystal” to allow all this to happen.
After sensing the divine power that was solidifying inside the crystal body, Abel quickly thought of the divine crystal. As the divine crystal was not fully formed, he could now better sense what was going on inside. The interior was made completely out of divine power, which was a crystal body on its own.
Unlike the wors.h.i.+p power that was on the divine statue, the wors.h.i.+p power on the statue seemed to be clearly infused with the messages of the spirits. It was like a power source for public use. Anyone that had access was free to activate it. Abel would know that the divine crystal could restrict the power of dimension, but honestly, he didn’t know what the exact method for making it happen was. Whatever the case, he understood that the divine crystal was an absolute treasure. He didn’t feel that the crystal could do any good to him, but if he could get more chances, he would just obtain more of the divine crystals.
After doing some inspections around the temple, Abel felt like there was nothing more to gain. Every item here was infused with wors.h.i.+p power, even the tables, chairs, and shelves. Everything was made to be only of the best quality. The most important thing would stay inside the temple area so that no commoners would lay their hands on them. Abel didn’t touch these things. No one was probably going to say anything if the divine crystal was just gone, but if an item went missing, even the servants would be shocked.
Abel looked towards a wooden door that was on one side of the divine temple. It was the entrance for the staff members to leave the temple. He thought that there might be something good inside. He was starting to get very worried. He was not sure if he could use his power of the Will here. His senses might just be suppressed, so it was really starting to get inconvenient.
He began by putting the divine crystal away, and then flew towards the front of the wooden door. There was no handle on the wooden door. The only thing was a verification circle. After seeing this, he wanted to break the door. Still, he tried to think of it as his new home. He placed his hand on the verification circle, and before it was opened, he was quick to notice what was going on inside. Along with the inside structure and the operation system of the circle, he noticed that he was gaining control over the whole system. It felt like he was inside his own magic tower, where all the systems and circles installed were free for him to command.
Abel’s conscience moved a bit on its own. The verification circle stopped activating, and the wooden door were just about to be opened. He was starting to feel something. If he could unleash his power of the Will, he might just be able to control everything that was here. He wouldn’t do this unless he felt the absolute need to. Things were doing fine just now. He was sneaking in to look through the things he wanted. If he could leave quietly, that would be the ideal.
Once the wooden door was opened, his body pa.s.sed through and allowed the door to shut on its own. Behind the door, he realized this was where the temple higher-ups lived. He could see that on the two ends were wide and large doors. A preacher wearing a white robe just came out. If this same preacher earlier, he might just see the wooden door opening and closing on its own.
Without taking too much time to observe, Abel could see that the preacher was at least an advanced sacred knight. Just from looking at the life presence he was emitting, he could tell that he was not too old at all. This preacher was probably a prodigy as a knight. This preacher held a book in his hand. His steps were fast and steady as he walked towards the deeper part of the walkway. Abel’s eyes quickly shone and followed behind.
The preacher had no idea an angel was tailing him. Even if the angelic body was not merging with the world, the legendary rank strength would just suffice for a perfect disguise. After walking not so far, the preacher turned at a corner of the walkway and continued walking. Abel followed quickly and saw that the preacher was pa.s.sing through an outdoor walkway into the side building of the temple. He was very satisfied. If he was to find it slowly himself, he was sure that it’d take a lot more time to find it. The main building of the temple was used to spread the faith. There weren’t be a lot of important facilities in the same location. Still, the size of the place was making it quite difficult to map out the right location.
The preacher walked towards the door and pressed his hand on it. He walked in as soon as the door was opened. He looked around and quickly saw that two advanced sacred knights were guarding the place. He knew that there was something important there.
In fact, the temple had these two sacred knights there just to have no trespa.s.sers coming through. These men didn’t have to be very strong. They were no different to mad knights, actually. As long as the siren was on, the entire defensive mechanism of the temple would just open and made it impossible for an escape. That being said, having anyone guarding this place was really more to do with sending warnings and reminding that only the privileged could be here. Naturally, the only ones that could be here had very high status.
Abel was floating in the air as he went past the two sacred knights. He could see that these knights were doing their jobs very well. Their eyes were focused the entire time, and they would be drawing their power of the Will out to make sure that the entrance was tightly sealed. That wouldn’t do much to detect Abel’s angelic body, though, so when Abel pa.s.sed through, he was not triggering any reaction whatsoever. Of course, Abel would still have his eyes focused the entire time. He would never underestimate his enemies. His attention was be highly focused on the advanced knights, and as long as the divine conscience remained open, he was sure that there wouldn’t be any difference in level whatsoever. Yes, he knew how sensitive divine conscience was. He was not unleas.h.i.+ng his murderous intent, which was how he got over the radar.
After going along the pa.s.sageway, Abel could see that this was pretty much an underground tunnel. He would be going further down very easily. He quickly found that circle runes were drawn all over the staircases. He didn’t think that these would be so easy to step on. His guess was right. There was a defensive barrier and a scanning circle. The amount of defence put here was ridiculous, and it made him even more certain that some treasure was buried.
Once he went further downward, he could see that there was another metallic door. It had the same material as when he was pa.s.sing through the giant door. He was pretty experienced this time, now. He placed his hand on the metallic door. It was immediately shutting down the verification circle on the metallic door and switching on the metallic door. Fearing that some sound would be there when the door was opened, he continued to place his hand on it. The terrifying power was starting to do something. His one hand was holding all the weight, but when the door was opened, there was no friction between it and the ground. A lot of muscle control must go into that, that was for sure.
Abel wouldn’t get this right all the time, but the Central Temple was unlike anywhere else. Here, his senses and power were both buffed to a great extent, and his physical strength was also enhanced to the point that it was very easy for him to do this.